Martin Luther King

In a Washington Post article, dated March 30, 2007, headlines read, “Fenty Tries to Sway Key Bush Aide.” The article went on to say that Mayor Adrian M. Fenty met with White House Chief of Staff, Joshua Bolten, for 45 minutes yesterday but made little progress in the city’s push for full voting rights in the House of Representatives. White House officials said recently that they would advise President Bush to veto a bill in the House if the legislation passed Congress. The article ended by Mr. Fenty stating, “I think it was a very constructive meeting, but there were not any commitments made by the White House.” Mr. Bush said earlier in the week that if such a bill were passed he would veto it because it was unconditional.

The White House’s tone is not one that is unfamiliar in America. There have been many times when what was right was denied based on what is and is not constitutional. Was it ever right for women and people of color to be denied the right to vote and participate fully in this country’s democracy? It happened and it was upheld as constitutional because the framers of the Constitution had not the foresight to see the value of every human being because they were operating within the framework of their time. They were however, men of great vision because they did have the foresight to understand that as the world changed, such a great document would be useless without the flexibility to change. We therefore, thank the framers for “Constitutional Amendments.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “A right delayed is a right denied” and that “The time is always right to do what is right.” The Johnson White House could have left the signing of the Voting Rights Act to another White House, but the time was right to do what was right. Many White Houses will come and go, but few occupants of that House will leave a legacy of doing what is right. Dr. King also said that, “We are not makers of history. We are made by history.” So it doesn’t matter whether this White House or the next one or the one after decides that the time is right to do what is right for the tax paying citizens of the District of Columbia, they will not leave the struggle until victory is won. Finite disappointments are unavoidable, but finite hope is what drives struggles into realities.

It is so prophetic in the District’s fight for full representation that we must sit quietly and hear Dr. King’s voice when he said; “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” Can’t you hear him say, “Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched across the pages of history the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, we were here. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail”. It is as if Dr. King wrote these words because somehow prophetically he knew that the District of Columbia had a fierce battle to fight because it is a part of the American struggle to overcome its selfishness, to overcome its greed and to walk out of darkness into the light of justice and full equality for all of its citizens.

Dr. King had a dream and the citizens of the District of Columbia have a dream that one-day they will be able to stand up and be counted as true American citizens with all the rights and liberties espoused in “We the people …”

The tragedy and sadness that befalls us as this White House prepares to veto not just a bill but also the rights of American citizens. Let not the hand of blame fall too heavily on the White House for this is a national disgrace. Let the hand be felt by every citizen in America because this is an American injustice, an American inequality that should be frowned upon and not tolerated by a loud echoing of the collective voices of citizens all across this country. When there is injustice doled out for part of the nation, there is injustice for the whole. Dr. King summed it up best for the District’s citizens and their fight for equal representation when he said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

“We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobile rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to mankind.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

In the United States of America a little boy died long before his time, not because he had some dreaded incurable disease, but because he was “poor”. What should have been a normal routine trip to the dentist to take out a nagging tooth festered into a deadly abscess whose poison went to the child’s brain. The child asked his mother to say her prayers before she slept on what would be the last night of her little boy’s life. How sad, how tragic, how uncommunity for the obituaries to contain the name of this child marking an untimely and unnecessary death. Now the Congress and the President will use the tragedy of this little boy to enact legislation that will expand dental care to poor children. Will it ease this mother’s pain and will it give explanation to a younger brother who can’t quite understand why his older brother by 2 years will not be coming home again? This little boy’s life was not honored because his mother’s salary and the size of her vehicle, or the lack there of, did not measure up to “Who Shall Live, but to Who Shall Die”. Our nation and health care providers failed to render a service to an innocent, poor child from the wrong side of the tracks. Our nation showed a disjointed connection to one of its own. He was a part of the relationship building that should live in the hearts, minds and service to all mankind.

“Nonviolent action, the Negro saw, was the way to supplement, not replace, the progress of change. It was the way to divest himself of passivity without arraying himself in vindictive force.” –Martin Luther King, Jr., Wall Street Journal, November 13, 1962.

The Middle East continues to be a hot bed of violence and constant unrest. The big question is - not the question of political correctness, or the question of whose side are you on, or the question of where will the greatest financial as well as military support come from if you support which faction –but the real, naked truth as to why does this level of unrest continue?

It appears that war and bloodshed have been a part of man’s existence since the beginning of time. If we look back over our world paths, irrespective of the continent on which we dwell, historians would say that man has made tremendous progress from then to now. We live in an age where we no longer take weeks and months to cross the Atlantic, but in many cases only a matter of hours. We live in an age of progressive automation, a high-tech world where we can fight wars from a computer similar to popular computer games where simulated blood flows when the target is hit. We look and listen to news reports everyday about the number of deaths and the vast human and property destruction. It goes on and on and with all of the advancements that man has made, he is still too ignorant and greedy to find a permanent path to peace. It is not difficult to find at least a degree of peace that will slide the study of war to the back burner of our lives. It is not difficult to look at one’s fellow man, woman as being just as human as you are. It is not difficult to imagine that when my throat is parched from the heat that I like you thirst for water. It is not hard to visualize that when my babies cry for food and shelter that I would seek to provide those needs just as you would. It is not far reaching to assist the elderly and the poor when they weep to be cared for. Man is more primitive than dogs when it comes to taking just what they need, not too much, just enough to take care of their needs. Dogs that have been socialized will give space to one another to eat and drank from the bowl prepared by their masters. Men on the other hand will eat in privacy to prevent sharing with someone who is hungry. War is about greed. War is about coveting. War is about control. War is about hatred and dominance. War is about destruction. War is about population control. War is about the preservation of the established elite. War is about killing the children of men and women we have never heard of — the unknowns in the society, those who bravely carry patriotism in their hearts without questioning the motives of those in authority. War is about the isolation of one’s soul where the heart is commanded to act without feeling and when and if the soul returns home - it will many times return without feeling to family and most of all - self.

Vindictive force will never be the sign of peace, it will never lift up the bright flame of love, it will never cement a call to brotherhood, it will never extinguish the embers of hate.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

There was simply nothing more important to Dr. King and his followers than a guarantee that African Americans would be able to participate in the political decision-making agenda of our nation by being allowed to vote. Dr. King wanted a guarantee that no obstacle (poll taxes, literacy tests and otherwise) would be placed in the way of African Americans’ full participation in the political process.

When the Voting Rights Act Extension passed in the Senate (July 20, 2006) by 98 to 0, some members of the House balked about the passage of certain provisions rather believing that the South had reached a point where such monitoring was no longer needed because of improvements in race relations. “It was voiced by some local and national officials that the targeted oversight is no longer justified and is a relic of days when Southern states could not be trusted to treat all citizens justly.” In a country where human nature is subject to rapid change that is not always objective and not always for the good of all; it is imperative that one unanimous voice speaks for the nation to ensure that at least under the law there are provisions for all men to be treated justly. The Voting Rights Act need no extension, but must be a law with room for amendments as the times and the needs of the country will inevitably change. The Voting Rights Act is too critical and too urgent to the foundation of this nation to be left to the whims of individual states. The sanctity of Voting Rights must be preserved and enforced in a most unanimous way—as part of the laws of our nation. We are yet a young nation seething with hatred, misunderstanding and sometimes the inability to do what is right, the inability to spread justice equally. We are a nation fortunate from the blessings of our forefathers who understood that there needed to be a system of checks and balances. We are not ready in our infancy to be left to our vices, state by state, to deliver justice equally. Take caution that it was just last summer as the leeves gave way to forces so powerful that they rendered man and all of his technology ineffective. It was just last summer in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that we allowed justice to be unequal and uncaring to some for too many days. We are not ready. We cannot risk going backwards because the move forward is still too slow for too many. Tell me what you think - Ready or Not?